TGyamiBakura

ah the internet debate... Being an 18 year old teen i can relate to this one. :P In my personal opinion, putting out personal information that can be traced is a nono. That means Last, middle name, city and date of birth. The first name, state and age is fine in my book.

Don't tell anybody anything you wouldn't tell a stranger in real life. Would you give out your full name and address to somebody you met on the street? I mean, there's no way to know ANYBODY'S real age for sure. If you meet someone that says they're 16 on the streets, who knows, they COULD be 20 and you wouldn't even realize it. In my opinion, becoming a part of your child's internet life is a better alternative to putting the ban on it. The moment you make something forbidden, it instantly becomes more attractive.

This way, if you're actively involved in getting to know your childs internet friends, you can know what sort of people they hang out with, and you're not *banning* them from something they enjoy.

As for internet porn and stuff... well obviously things like that can lead to spyware and viruses, lots of money that is wasted, and general misbehavior, so porn sites generally aren't a good idea. But aside from the technical issues with it, it's no different than your son harboring a porn mag without your knowledge. Teenagers are teenagers, so lighten up. You did it too! It's just a bit more technical nowadays. I think parents are strict on that sort of thing just because their bored and like to assert their authority... But yeah internet porn is bad... But don't block too hard, otherwise Generally *good* sites will be blocked too. And then your son/daughter will just get angry at you. XD

But I don't think a paren't should have the *right* to know every single aspect of what a teen does when they aren't there. Privacy is big or you'll just get a rebellious kid who WILL turn to involved internet dating while they aren't mature enough to handle it and WILL start doing bad things... So keep the monitoring to a comfortable medium. Don't butt into your kids lives unless you really truly think there's a problem. A good way to avoid ANY problems is communication and maintaining a good relationship with your kid. so yeah...that's my opinion...